Nave Nove lands in Porto
Port is a place where the wine barrels They cleaned themselves singing. They did it in pairs. One stayed outside listening to the fado of the colleague When he stopped singing he would take it out. They used to pass out from alcohol fumes. Singing was her way of saving herself.
Porto is like that a fight against the granite and the waves of the sea . They added alcohol to the wine to make it withstand the pounding of the ocean as it made its way to the english isles . were made houses as if fused with the stone walls , and the alleys are like the scars of the one who went to war and came back to tell the tale.
Let us not forget that fado was a lamentation of a dictator who asked people to look the other way while singing.
The slopes of Porto: all the charm, all the effort
The same two merchants yell at the top of their lungs on the quay that they list the dishes on the menu as if it were a poem . And the seagulls that accompany you on the tourist boats that tour the Douro they move away from you as soon as they see you're carrying a camera.
If you arrive in Porto on wheels you will cross a bridge until giving, after a couple of streets, to the Garagem Atlantico , which is like entering a old loom factory . And when leaving, two steps to the right, from the Batalha Square you will take a narrow path, the Rua da Madeira.
From there you will see the Porto Sao Bento at the bottom and steep and winding stairs, like those of those neighborhoods that I saw Cartier-Bresson through his camera . Only this time, if you look for your decisive moment, what you may see is a musician having a beer in the sun outside the iron bar (Madera 84).
Arriving at Nave Nove
you will keep walking Mouzinho da Silveira Street downhill happy and content (you'll see on the way back, now) on the way to Ribeira, stopping at the shops to try things.
Like in the Canned Food Store _(Mouzinho da Silveira 240) _ which has a huge gourmet assortment of preserves from national producers that you can even drink right there. When you think about turning your ride, remember to do it on the Alfandega do Porto _(rua Nova da Alfândega) _.
It is a spectacular building from the 19th century. A stone's throw away is the ** Armazém ** (Miragaia 93), a haven of peace among passers-by that will take you back to another era. And you can do it on your terrace with a cold beer.
A haven of peace and antiques
**WELCOME TO SHIP NOVE**
That wild nature that gives the cement that seems to grow from the rocks while the Atlantic redoubles its forces is what has fallen in love with 22 Galician chefs to show the best of Galician gastronomy.
They will do it for just one month **(from October 24 to November 17)** at Nave Nove, a ephemeral restaurant which will be located in the Hotel Carris Porto Ribeira _(Rua do Infante D. Henrique 1) _, in the heart of the city.
Nave Nove disembarks in Porto
They were the members of ninth group who told themselves that it had been a long time since they really played it. Because it's easy when you do it at home. You can see the hand and the style in the details. There are regular customers who know who is behind the fires just by seeing the sommelier showing the wine.
Each one proposed his idea . They put together the 22 and between all of them they turned the menu upside down: that no one's hand should be noticed, that it was not a menu with 44 hands, with seasonal products, and return to the dish that our grandmother used to make us, the one we eat with friends at the corner bar.
The raw material is Galician, including the pairing. but upon arrival they fell in love with a market and went for more. And someone asked about the possibility of making it evolve over time and with people, with the products that were on the market and the desire of those who wanted to try them. They called it an experiment. And they answered, come on, why not?
They will be the ones who take the baton, taking turns for days, coordinating a team of gastronomy professionals from Portugal. The first will be a Michelin star. And the menu, far from being typical, goes into ways of working the product unknown even to the most punctilious Galician.
Galician product in Nave Nove
So you can try a pickled pepper or notice the taste of pork in a cabbage cannelloni with mushrooms and chestnuts. Or know the real taste of a hake cooked to perfection . Even the Galician cheeses for dessert come from the ** Queijaria do Almada **, founded by a Galician in love with this land.
Cheeses from Queijaria do Almada for the ephemeral restaurant Nave Nove
And the herbs that aromatize the final cocktail were chosen by the chief mixologist in the garden of one of the Nove group restaurants.
It can be booked on the web navel.nove.gal and its price is €90 (€120 with the pairing).
Nine plates, nine steps. Like the nine that started it all.